Live feed from cemetery in Bethel Park honors artist's birthday

The Andy Warhol Museum has launched a live video feed from the pop artist's gravesite to honor his 85th birthday.

Museum director Eric Shiner said the project is titled "Figment" because of a Warhol quote in which the artist said: "I always thought I'd like my own tombstone to be blank. No epitaph and no name. Well, actually, I'd like it to say, 'Figment.'"

Shortly after dawn Tuesday, the live video showed a star-shaped silver balloon and two smaller black-and-white balloons swaying gently in the breeze, next to a headstone surrounded by flowers and some decorative grasses.

Later in the afternoon, more flowers, birthday balloons and even a birthday cake surrounded Warhol's gravesite with a few dozen fans and employees at the museum.

EarthCam is providing two cameras to live stream all of the activities so that Warhol fans around the world can experience the occasion.

"This amazing technology, that if Andy was alive today, he would be really intrigued in utilizing a live webcam to create art. In a lot of ways, that's what we're doing today," said EarthCam CEO Brian Cury.

Shiner said the museum, which is based in Pittsburgh, Warhol's hometown, decided that the gravesite webcam "would be a really fantastic way to put Andy on the air 24/7 and plug in to our global audience."

"We believe that this will give Warhol the pleasure of knowing that he is still plugged in and turned on over 25 years after his death," Shiner said.

The Warhol gravesite also is documented in artist Madelyn Roehrig's ongoing art project, "Figments: Conversations with Andy." Roehrig videotapes people who visit the grave and photographs the many objects adoring fans leave there.

"People dress up, perform, dress up as characters," she said. "And they leave notes to Andy. There are about 800 right now."

Hundreds of people visit Warhol's grave every year, often leaving pop culture items featured in his artworks, such as Campbell's Soup cans and Coca-Cola bottles.

EarthCam said it also will have a live webcam from the church where Warhol was baptized and people will be able to send flowers and watch as they are delivered to the grave.

3 TODAY WOULD HAVE BEEN THE 85-TH BIRTHDAY OF A PITTSBURGH LEGEND. ARTIST ANDY WARHOL. NOW-- HE'S PART OF AN UNUSUAL PIECE OF POP ART, FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE. THIS IS A LIVE VIDEO FEED OF WARHOL'S GRAVESITE... WHERE ALL DAY LONG-- FANS HAVE BEEN STOPPING BY TO PAY TRIBUTE TO THE POP CULTURE ICON!! AND RIGHT NOW A MEMORIAL SERVICE IS TAKING PLACE IN PITTSBURGH'S GREENFIELD NEIGHBORHOOD. THAT'S WHERE WE FIND ACTION NEWS REPORTER SHELDON INGRAM. SHELDON? 3 3 3 3 CANDLES - - BALLOONS - - A CAKE - - FLOWERS. IT'S AN ANDY WARHOL GRAVESITE BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION FOR THE WHOLE WORLD TO SEE. EARTHCAM INSTALLED TWO EARTHCAM TO SEE.BIRTHDAY IT'S AN ANDY BALLOONS - - A CAKE - 3 3 BALLOONS - - A CAKE - IT'S AN ANDY BIRTHDAY TO SEE. INSTALLED TWO CAPTURE VISITORS STREAMING IT TO WEBSITE. INNOVATIVE - - IT'S WARHOLISH. 3 STREAMING ON THE WEB ALLOWS MANY OF WARHOL'S FANS TO ALSO CELEBRATE AROUND THE WORLD. FOR FIVE YEARS - - MADELYN ROEHRIG HAS RECORDED VISITORS AT WARHOL'S GRAVESITE EVERYDAY WITH PICTURES AND VIDEO. SHE SAYS THEY ACTAUALLY TALK TO WARHOL. 3 WHILE MANY KNOW WARHOL AS THE ARTIST - - HIS RELATIVES KNOW HIM AS UNCLE ANDY. 3 3